Broadway harvests big holiday bucks

Thanksgiving bountiful mostly for musicals

Broadway sales in Week 26 (Nov. 21-27) demonstrated once more that Thanksgiving is a great time to be on Broadway — at least if you’re an established hit that holiday visitors flock to see.

Such in-demand productions can, after all, capitalize on the spike in time-sensitive ticket demand to rake in huge premium-price profits. Case in point: “The Book of Mormon” ($1,677,963), which played nine perfs rather than the usual eight and logged an average price-paid-per-ducat of a stratospheric $170.

The holidays can be a tough time to sell most plays, however, as evidenced by slippage even at “The Mountaintop” ($575,900), “Relatively Speaking” ($520,264) and “Other Desert Cities” ($501,005), three of this season’s better-performing non-tuners.

Overall Rialto cume hit $28.1 million for 34 shows on the boards (vs. $26 million for 39 shows during last year’s Turkey Day frame). Attendance of about 270,000 was around 85% of capacity.

With Thanksgiving over, Broadway’s overall sales will drop down to somewhat less stellar levels, but look poised to remain healthy throughout December and into the bonanza of the Christmas-New Year’s frame.

The 24 musicals grossed $23,439,000 for 83.5% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 214,872 and an average paid admission of $109.08.

The 10 plays grossed $4,647,475 for 16.5% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 54,686 and an average paid admission of $84.98.